The Way Things Are
by A.N.D
Summary: After a hard day at school for Danny, Tucker and Sam think of a great way to cheer him up. But what they didn't know, was it wasn't going to turn out as exactly as they wanted. So much for the surprise, Danny. (Look for the DxS)
1. Default Chapter

> **Hey, there.   
  
I'm, A.N.D and this is my Danny Phantom fic. My first one, so please drop in and read and review to tell me what you think.   
  
Well, this fic is mostly a action/humor thing. But look out for the pairings. wink, wink   
  
Well, please go and read the first chapter of my fic, humbly named.  
  
Chapter 1: Takes the cake**
> 
> Sam and Tucker held there friend, Danny Fenton around the shoulders as they looked at the obstacle in front of them.  
  
"You can do it, Danny." Tucker said as he gave a positive smile to one of his best friends.   
  
Danny smiled as he cracked his knuckles, "Thanks, Tuck." he replied. Danny balled his fist's and took a defensive stance. Sam and Tucker backed away, they knew the routine.  
  
"I'm going ghost!" Danny shouted. And upon saying that, his clothes changed to the black and white suit, his hair turned white and those signature green eyes of his flashed over his sky blue pupils. He was now Danny Phantom.  
  
Danny did waste any second as he pushed forward through the mayhem. Pot's and pans fell from the cabinets, the windows shuddered, and Sam and Tucker hid under the kitchen table. Sam looked to Tucker, "This isn't a good place for Danny to be doing this!" She said as she propped the table to its side, using it as a shield.  
  
"I know!" Tucker replied, shouting over the commotion of Danny's battle.  
  
Sam looked over the table and ducked as and egg almost made a direct contact with her face. Sam, ducked back down, "Danny, hurry!" she shouted.  
  
"Hey, what's happening?" Tucker said as he popped his head above the table only to meet a flurry of fruit launched into his face. Sam giggled as Tucker ducked under the table again. Tucker pulled a apple caught in his mouth and munched on it. He looked to Sam, "Orange?" he asked as pulled the fruit from his eye.  
  
Sam waved her hand, "No thanks, I'm more in the mood for cereal."  
  
Tucker nodded as he held his hand out and caught a box that came their way, "Cherrios?"  
  
Sam took the box, "Thanks, um...could use some milk."  
  
Tucker nodded as he held his hand out above the table again and caught a bowl, a spoon and a quart of milk. He handed them to Sam and they commence eating. Sam looked at her watch and then to Tucker, "So, anything good come on last night?"  
  
Tucker rolled his eyes, "There is absolutely nothing to watch on Tuesdays."  
  
Sam nodded as she chewed her cereal, "You think he's done yet?"  
  
"Don't know." Tucker replied as he looked over the table again. He cupped his hand to his mouth, C' mon, Danny! You can do it!"  
  
Danny nodded toward his friends comment and with one final lunge and the sweep of a round house kick, he was done. He let out a exhausted breath and fell tiredly to his knees. His ghost form disappeared and back to his normal features. His clothes returned to normal, his hair turned black, and when he opened his eyes, they were back to sky blue.  
  
Danny smiled positively as he stood up and crossed his arms in pride. He looked behind to Tucker and Sam who still continued to eat as they propped the table back upright.  
  
"So, what do you think, guys?" Danny asked  
  
"It's great, Danny." Sam said as she and Tucker walked over. Tucker looked up, "Yeah, who knew you could bake that big of a cake."  
  
Danny nodded, "Yeah, I know. I'm a miracle man." he said as stretched his arms in air and then around his two friends shoulders.  
  
"So, tell me again why you had to go in ghost form to bake this for home econmics?" Sam asked.  
  
Tucker rolled his eyes, "Duh, cause it'd be more fun."  
  
"Much." He replied as he gave his friend a high five.  
  
Sam looked back to the cake, "So, now that you iced a three layer cake, in under three minutes. That's one layer more than you were suppose to-"  
  
"It was extra credit." Danny replied, shrugging his shoulders.  
  
Sam held her chin, "And you do know Jazz is going to murder you when she finds this mess."  
  
Danny slapped his forehead, "Jazz! I forgot she was still here!"  
  
Tucker tossed his well bitten apple core toward the trash bin, "Kobe!" he shouted as the apple core bounced around the rim and not fall in. "Hey, where'd you parent's go again?"  
  
Jazz stepped into the kitchen "Those two went on a ghost convention. Morning...guy's...." Jazz's voices stopped as she looked around the room.  
  
Danny rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Morning, Jazz. Would this be a bad time to ask if you could drop me off to school? Cause my cake wouldn't survive on the bus."  
  
Jazz just stood there as her eyes darted around the mess in the room She held her finger up and was about to shout when a bowl that was stuck on the ceiling dropped over her head.  
  
Danny chuckled nervously, "Um, my bad."
> 
> _Thirty Minutes later  
_
> 
> "Dude, I thought Jazz was going to go nuke on you!" Tucker laughed as he imitated the shock look on Jazz's face when the bowl of icing fell on her head.  
  
"Yeah, good thing you made a deal with her or else you would've really got it." Sam said as she helped Danny carry his cake into the school.  
  
Danny nodded and chuckled, "Yeah, I know. She said she wouldn't tell Mom and Dad if I cleaned up the mess and I watch the house while she's out to that book signing of that Psychologist person, um what was his name again?"  
  
Tucker scratched at his cap, "Wasn't Dr. P-"  
  
"Hey Foley, heads up!" A voice called out to him as a football hit him square in the chest, knocking him down on his back.  
  
"Tucker!" Sam and Danny said together as they looked down to their friend.  
  
"Yo, buddy. You going to be alright?" Danny asked as he steadied the cake still in his hands. Sam helped him up and looked to who threw the ball. Her eyes furrowed when she saw who it was.  
  
"Nice catch, Foley!" The football jock laughed as he walked over and picked the football up from Tuckers hands.  
  
"Yeah, no prob, Dash." Tucker wheezed, after having the wind knocked out of him from the pass.  
  
Dash sneered, "And what do we have here? Fenton has a cake?! How girly is that?" he asked his two other jock friends behind him. "Whatch going to do with the cake, Fenton?" Dash jeered as he pulled the cake from under Danny's hands."  
  
"Dash, no!" Danny shouted as Dash held the cake above him, to high for his reach.  
  
"C'mon, Fenton. Jump for it! Jump for it!" Dash laughed.  
  
"C'mon Dash, quit it!" Danny shouted  
  
"What was that, Fenton? You want me to what? You want me to drop it?"  
  
Danny's eyes filled with fear. All his hard work was about to go down the drain, "No! Dash please, don't!"  
  
Dash smiled as he clumsily dropped the cake on the ground. Danny looked down to his cake and back to Dash with disbelief. Though, not totally surprised someone like Dash would do this.  
  
Dash smiled as he tossed his football to one of his jock friends, "Oops, good luck in Home Ec. See you later, Fenton!" He and his friends laughed as they ran off to pass the ball around like they did before.  
  
Tucker sat up and looked to Danny who looked at his cake, on his knees, "Man..., it's ruined."  
  
Sam looked to Danny, "Hey, it'll be alright. Look, Dash just dropped it on the top. The other two layers will be alright. I mean, all you needed was two." Sam placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Danny sighed, "Thanks Sam, but I need that extra credit or I'll fail home Ec."  
  
Tucker chuckled, "What about Bio and Algeb-ow" he said as Sam elbowed him in the arm.  
  
"Not helping." She whispered.  
  
Danny picked up his cake, pulling the two other layers off and leaving the ruined one on the ground. He sighed, "Maybe theres another way for me to get extra credit."  
  
Sam smiled, "There we go, Danny. Think on the positive sides."  
  
"Yeah, but Dash is a jerk for doing that." Tucker said as he stood up and brushed himself off. "Maybe, you can do that ghostly get back again?" Tucker smiled to him.  
  
Danny sighed and shook his head, "That won't do any good. Even if I wanted to," Danny gritted his teeth, "I can't, I learned a lesson when Poindexter took over my body."  
  
Sam nodded, "That's pretty noble, Danny."  
  
Danny smiled, "Thanks, Sam."  
  
Sam smiled back, "Maybe you should get to Home Ec and leave it there to your teacher for safe keeping."  
  
"Yeah, and," Tucker looked to his PDA, "you have three mintues"  
  
Danny looked to Tucker, "What?! Hey, I got to go guys, . I'll see you in first period!" Danny shouted as he ran into the building.  
  
Tucker looked to Sam, "He'll be alright."  
  
Sam held her chin, "Yeah..., we should probably do something to make him feel better."  
  
"Hey, that's not a bad idea. How about we all head for the arcade after school? It is Friday, y' know? We have a whole three days."  
  
"Are you suggesting we stay at the arcade for three day's straight?"  
  
Tucker shrugged his shoulders, "Sure, why not? Me and Danny did it before."  
  
Sam rolled her eyes again, "Good," she said sarcastically, " but it has to be something we all can do. I don't want to spend my whole weekend in a arcade like you two would."  
  
Sam crossed her arms in thought, "Hey how about we sleep over at his place?"  
  
Tucker's face lit up, "Hey, that's a great idea! The house will be empty with Jazz out. Danny's parents aren't there, and we're old enough to stay there by ourselves. That's really a great idea!"  
  
Sam smiled, "Thanks-"  
  
"I'm glad I thought of it!" Tucker laughed as he walked into the school.  
  
Sam stood there, "Hey," she ran after him, "That was my idea!"
> 
> _after school_
> 
> "That's a great idea, guy's." Danny said as he and his friends walked out the school building.  
  
"Yeah, good thing I thought-." Tucker said.  
  
Sam elbowed him in the arm again, "It was my idea, remember.?"  
  
Tucker rubbed his arm sheepishly, "Well, anyway, it'll be great. We'll be by ourselves and it'll be fun." He said with a smile.  
  
"Yeah, I really need to have something take my mind off school." Danny said as set up his electric scooter he was holding under his arm. He strapped his helmet on, "But doesn't this sound more like a slumber party?"  
  
Sam arched a brow and smiled, "Danny, we haven't had one of those since we were twelve. This is a sleep over, not a slumber party."  
  
"Yeah, dude. We're fourteen. We got to call it something else now." He said as he waved to a car, "Yo, I got to go. My mom's here. See you guys later, tonight."  
  
Sam looked to Tucker and Danny, "So, at eight then?"  
  
Sam and Tucker nodded as the trio went off in different directions, "See you guys later." they said simultaneously.  
  
**And, this is the end of Chapter 1. Hope you enjoyed it, and please review when you're done reading.   
  
I'd really appreciate it, very much.  
  
This is Hollow  
  
Signing off.  
  
v  
  
Gotta love the donuts**.


	2. Procrasination

**Hey, it's me. A.N.D If no one remembers me then I don't blame you. It's been literally forever (or maybe a year) since I've been back. Most of you might have left FF while I was gone so I guess I'm "new" again. **

**Well my explanation for being off so long is kinda a lame excuse.  
It was computer trouble. It crapped up on me and it left me with no computer. So I took a while to find someone who could fix it. Well, fix it for free. **

**So I found this guy, gave it to him and bada bing, I got it back. Well it's not exactly "bada bing" it was a long while. Then I had college to deal with, and still do. So when I got computer savvy again, I started to write. Oh, and btw all my fanfiction I had in reserves for other chapters for my other stories were deleted when I got my computer back. It had to be reloaded or something and the dude should f told me to put it on disk, but he didn't. So I had to rewrite a lot of chapters. But I decided to start my DP back first. Since the story was still fresh in my mind. So yeah. Crappy computer, fixing it, college, and rewriting a mess of pages has made me occupied.**

**Oh and btw if you did not figure this out. But with no computer, I could not get your reviews. And I was really surprised on how some people took it real serious. So for you guy's out there who cared I really appreciate it. Hope that explains things. **

**So now I'll finish by introducing the PART 2 of this installment. **

**  
"Procrastination"**

Mr. Lancer stroked his forehead. Yet another wrinkle was to be added to several others on his bald head. All thanks to one particular student, "Mr. Fenton, tell me why you are here."

In fact, Danny did not know. He was just about to leave the school on his scooter when Lancer had called to see him over the loud speakers. So here he was. When he was just about to leave and have a good weekend. Then it him. He knew why Lancer had called him in.Danny smiled sheepishly, "Cause you wanted to congratulate me on such a well deserved, well written research paper?"Lancer arched a brow, " Oh, why yes. Yes I did," he smiled.

Danny let out a sigh of relief.

Procrastinating began to look a lot less fun to Danny. If he had remembered that he needed to bake a cake for Home Ec. he would not have made such a bad paper. It was just bad luck that he forgot about both projects that were due on the same day. Danny had skimmed by with a D for the cake with one missing layer and grass bits with dirt instead of sprinkles on the frosting. Only because he explained the situation with Dash to the teacher and someone vouched that it happened. With Mr. Lancer though, he did not know what to expect.

"But of course, I am being sarcastic," Lancer yelledDanny gulped, his eyes drifted towards the floor. Oh, what he would do to disappear into the floor right now, literally. He knew Lancer did not want to talk to him about a good, well researched paper. It was obviously because what he culminated and claimed to be a research paper, was not well researched at all. It was put together in a matter of twenty minutes before he got to school after baking the cake.

"It looks like you wrote this in twenty minutes before school, Daniel!"

Danny called it.

"Look, I'm sorry. Mr. Lancer, it's just that I'm so busy,"

"Do not give me that, Mr. Fenton. You had more than enough time to write this paper. Which was assigned two months ago!"

"Mr. Lancer please,"

"You have major grammatical errors, you have numerous sentence fragments. And, if I'm quite certain," Lancer looked at the paper, "You have the words, "˜I hate writing papers, I hate writing papers, I hate writing papers', written several times to achieve the bare minimum of words assigned."

Danny shrugged his shoulders. Slightly embarrassed he asked. "So, is the paper good enough for a D?"

"Did you even know what the paper was to be about?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"The truth, Fenton."

"Uh, no?""Then, no. You did not get a D."

"But, Mr. Lancer," Danny protested. "I need this D. I need to pass."

"I do not care, Mr. Fenton. What matters is how do you expect me to give you credit when there is none to be given. This is unacceptable."

"But I did the paper on empathy!"

"Do you even know what that word means!? Because this paper," Lancer waved, "does not show me you do."

"It means to pity, right?"

"Wrong!"

"Charity?"

"Wrong!"

"Then what is it!"

"To understand and share the feelings of another. That is what it means."

"But isn't that the same thing."

Mr. Lancer sighed, "No, no it does not." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, "It does not."

Lancer sat in thought, Thinking of what to do next to this less than average student. What should he do, he pondered.

"So what are you thinking of, Mr. Lancer?"

"A solution, Mr. Fenton."

"Oh..."

The man took a deep breath, "Ok, Fenton. I've decided."

"Yes?"

"I would like you to redo this paper again. Keep in mind I rarely give second chances, but believe it or not, I have faith in you. I know that you are a creative young man when you put your mind into it."

"Wow. Thanks, Mr. Lancer.""Because, we both know that your physical self is not so in tune." Lancer looked at Danny, "You should really try hitting the weights."

"Great, there is his great sense of dry wit again," Danny said to himself as he rolled his eyes.

"Redo this paper, Fenton. Have it ready to turn in three days from now. Since tomorrow will be a Teachers Work Day. So I gave you three days instead of TWO."

"But, wait. That means I have to do this paper on the weekend.."

"Oh, I know. A little something for you to do besides goofing off with Manson and Foley," he smiled as he handed the paper back to Danny.

Danny smiled depressingly, "Thanks, Mr. Lancer."

"Just please, please try to remember the topic Daniel. And get it right this time."

Danny stuffed the paper into his book bag as he walked out the door."I'll get YOU right," he mumbled. Great, just great. He thought to himself. Now he had rewrite the whole stupid paper all over again. He sighed as he walked out of school. He had enough for one day and all he wanted was to go home. He strapped on his electric scooter, put on his helmet, and rode off down the sidewalk towards home. His phone rang, "Hey, Sam. What's up?"

"Are you done dealing with Lancer?"

"Yeah, and I'm heading home."

"What'd he say?"

"Something about how I got the topic wrong and how I have to rewrite it."

"Ooo, that stinks."

"Tell me about it. Hey, what did he give you on your paper? On, uh, what was it?"

"Anti-assimilation and it's deep underground effects on society?"

"Uh, yeah that?"

"An," she hesitated, "A?"

"What? No way."

"Well actually it's a A-, but hey, it's not that big of a deal."

"Man, I swear. Lancer is out to get me."

"Or is it that you wrote it twenty minutes before school?"

Danny's phone rang again. "Hold on, it's Tucker. I'll put us on three way" He pushed a button, "Hey, Tuck."

"Hey, Danny. Hey Sam. How did that twenty minute paper go, dude?"

"Well,"

Sam scoffed, "Well?"

"He did bad, didn't he? You did bad didn't you?"

"Hey! Give me a chance to respond! But, yeah. I kinda did."

"Tsk-Tsk, my friend. Told you to try and write it THIRTY minutes before school, like I did."

"Oh, and what did you get?"" My paper on obsession? With the help of being computer savvy and managing to find good sources, a C.""What!"

"Well actually a C-,"

"Man, how do you guy's get off so lucky."

"It's not luck Danny," Sam said. "We just know how to relate to our topics and get decent info."

"Well, I have ghost fighting to do, you guy's don't. So I win this conversation."

"Ha-ha, Danny," Sam replied.

"Dude, since you have three days, you want us to help you with that paper tonight?

"Eh, I don't know. It would make things easier and fun so- sure!""Cool. Then give us a call when you're ready. I got stuff to do."

"Yeah, same here. Later, Danny,"Sam said."Alright, I'll catch you guy's later," he said as he hanged up his phone. He sighed. Not only did he not want to redo this paper again, he had no idea where to start. What was empathy? If it was not pity or being charitable, then what? He knew those were words that connected. What was Lancer looking for? Was not the definition good enough."Maybe," he thought. "maybe he wanted me to get something more out of it. Maybe, maybe...," Danny bit his bottom lip. " It's, oof!" Danny's scooter collided into a bus bench and he was sent tumbling over in a crumple of scooter and body parts. "And now I lost it."

**End of chapter 2**

**Once again, sorry you guys. For the lateness. But y'know things happen that are out of your hands and stuff happens. So please, if you got something to say to me then say it. But remember, do it in a review! But seriously, review. Wanna hear feedback bout how I did after a long hiatus. **

**Oh and PS, my Teen Titans sequel to K.O.R.D, is the next to be updated when I see where I left off.  
**

"**Man, you come straight out of a comic strip."**

**-Bushido Brown, The Boondocks**


End file.
